REFLECTIONS

In the beginning of the revolution against Diaz, as public opinion seemed to be favorable to what was called “The Great Constructive Work of Diaz,” there was a vague and superficial impression that the United States should repeat the policy which had been inaugurated toward Cuba; a sort of political tutelage which left the independence of the island in the hands of the natives.

Subsequent events have revealed to the Americans that although the Mexicans were still groping for a Constitution more in keeping with their racial characteristics, that they had had, in opposition to Cuba, which gained its independence from Spain in 1908, a national history for one hundred years, with great national heroes, martyrs and political ideals which could not be infringed and trespassed upon by an uncalled for intervention in their internal affairs.

Thoughtful and well-informed statesmen and politicians have come to the conclusion that a political tutelage as in Cuba will never be tolerated in Mexico, any more than military aggression for the sake of conquest, or under the hypocritical name of peace.

The average American knows that a Mexican war would be a war without heroes or glory for American arms.

The Mexicans are intensely grateful to President Wilson for insisting on keeping hands off in Mexico. The internal struggle of the liberals fighting against the reactionary powers in Mexico must be settled by the Mexicans themselves, or it will have to be settled all over again.

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The impression of a great many Americans is that Mexico is going towards political disruption, that is to say, a secession into three entities: the North, the Centre and the South.

Northern secession is encouraged by the great mining, oil, railroad, and land interests in the United States and by the reactionaries in Mexico. Southern secession is not only encouraged, but fomented, by the ambitious and able dictator of Guatemala.

The northern republic would comprise the border states, as well as Lower California, which, even if independent, would be more friendly to the United States than a united Mexico. That is the conviction of those interested in a Northern secession.

A Southern republic would mean the absorption of the States of Yucatan, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, and the Territory of Quintana Roo, under the leadership and hegemony of Guatemala.

Working towards that end, and in co-operation with the Guatemalan dictator, is a gentleman in the State Department, who was once U. S. representative in Guatemala.

American interests are allied with the Mexican interests, whereas, the American radicals, socialists and the labor party are in sympathy with the Mexican liberals. The American and Mexican capitalists are opposed to the American and Mexican middle class and proletariat.

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The same class trouble is going on in the Church in Mexico. The native Mexican clergy is opposed to the high or foreign clergy. All the oppressions, cruelties, and treacheries in the fight of the clericals against the liberals have emanated from the foreign or high clergy, which used the military element for that purpose. The unselfish, libertarian struggle on the other hand, was always actively assisted by the native priests; by men like Morelos and Hidalgo. The poor Mexican priest, or better said, the low Mexican clergy, is first a Mexican, and if that agrees with his belief, he will be a good Catholic; but if his faith is pitted against the welfare of his country, then he will invariably prefer to be a good Mexican and a poor Catholic, to being a poor Mexican and an obedient Catholic.

The higher clergy in the United States, by attacking the liberal policies in Mexico, and waging an active campaign against the Mexican revolutionists, is placing itself in direct opposition to the lower Mexican clergy.

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From the Mexican point of view, three principles have been laid down to face and combat American aggression, or absorption. The elimination of predatory American capital, the curtailment of American immigration schemes, and the advancement of European immigration. American methods, on the other hand, will be encouraged in all the active expressions of life, such as business organizations, farming and school methods.

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There is no doubt that ten years of a complete and practical rural school system in Mexico will change the whole social and political character of the republic. The advancement of woman in life will also gain a decided advantage for the Mexican, for no nation can be greater or better than its women.

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Oriental immigration cannot be encouraged, as being dangerous to the best interests of Mexico, not because of the inferiority of the Orientals, but because of their superiority, which would tend to segregate them into colonies.

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A Mexican engineer suggested a plan to cut a canal in Lower California, from Enseñada to the Rio Colorado, a distance of ninety miles. By this method Lower California would be made into an island, and the passage of ships from the Pacific Ocean at Enseñada, through the Canal into the Gulf of California would double the importance, commercially and politically, of the States of Sonora, Sinaloa and the Eastern side of Lower California. Irrigation, and later immigration, in Lower California, would change the barren island into a garden.

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The Mexican revolutionists are socialists without knowing it; their actions in the economical and political field have proven it; the Marxian theorists in Europe showed by their attitude in the war, that they were not socialists, but political trimmers.

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The French revolution is being repeated in Mexico. Bare feet are pattering up on one side of the stairway, while patent leathers are descending on the opposite side.

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The Mexican problem is like a sand-bar in the path of the American Ship of State.